Abstract

The present work was to study the anti-inflammatory activity of Coccinia indica Wight and Arn fruits belonging to family Cucurbitaceae. The fruit powder of C. indica was subjected to successive extraction with petroleum ether, chloroform, ethanol and water in a Soxhlet extractor. The ethanol extract after preliminary phytochemical investigation shown the presence of glycosides, triterpenoids, flavonoids, tannins and phenolic compounds. The anti-inflammatory activity was studied using carrageenan-induced rat paw oedema and cotton pellet granuloma at three different doses (100, 200 and 400 mg/kg b.w. p.o.) of each extract. The ethanol extract of C. indica fruits exhibited significant anti-inflammatory activity at the dose of 200 mg/kg and 400 mg/kg in both models when compared with control group. Indomethacin (10 mg/kg b.w. p.o) also showed significant anti-inflammatory activity in both models.